Why progress 'won't satisfy' Red Bull until it can give Verstappen a winning car

Red Bull Formula 1 team boss Laurent Mekies says his squad can't take too much satisfaction out of the progress it has made this year until it can start winning races, which starts with getting on top of the RB22's unpredictability.

The Milton Keynes squad began 2026 as the fourth-fastest team, being behind on aerodynamic load while also struggling to achieve reliable starts with its first in-house power unit.

But Red Bull has since made big strides, highlighted by a close second place for Max Verstappen in Austria before two further podiums in Belgium and Hungary.

Yet both the gap to the front and the RB22's puzzling behavioural inconsistencies means that while Red Bull may feel like it's on the right track with the upgrades it has piled onto the 2026 car, it cannot be satisfied until it reaches the top step of the podium.

"Don't count on me to say that we are satisfied, because we are not," Mekies said after Red Bull finished the first part of the season fourth in the constructors' standings. "We will not be satisfied until we go back to have a race car that has the pace to win on merit. We don't sign for anything else than winning races.

"We know where we started, why we started there, when we put things in perspective with the late push of last year and with the PU adventures.

“But I have to say well done [to] everyone, PU side, chassis side. Some lap time progress has been brought through updates, some has been brought through a lot of people in the background, our 2,000 people that have been working to bring a little bit more to every single area, some of them you never hear about.

“But it put us back in the positions where we are now, fighting every race for the podium."

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Max Slovencik / Getty Images

Why the Red Bull has been so tough to tame

Verstappen's second place in Budapest, in the absence of a sloppy Ferrari and a retiring Oscar Piastri, certainly flattered the squad after both he and Isack Hadjar never managed to get a consistent balance out of what appears to be an aerodynamically sensitive car that is hard to keep humming along.

"I think we never managed to give Max and Isack a car they could push with," Mekies conceded. "If I look back to driver feedback in Spa or in Austria, they would probably have said that the car was pretty much ballpark to how it should feel and to what it allows them to do.

"That was never the case this weekend, certainly worse on Friday and Saturday compared to [the race], but still I have to say that it probably was not giving a very good feeling to the drivers.

"Nonetheless, I think it's fair to say that only Lando [Norris] was clearly faster than Max, and I think everyone else he could have matched or beat, so I guess it's positive because it means we have margin to improve with the current package.

"We'll try to see why we are so much on the edge of car balance, corner balance, car performing, car not performing, because it's been hard work for the drivers but also the team in these last few races to keep the car in its window."

When asked why that was the case, Mekies suggested there is an inherent sensitivity to external conditions, such as wind or minor aero damage from debris, that can have a big impact on how the RB22 feels to drive. That is not a recent phenomenon, but appears to be a trait the team has been trying to get on top of since day one.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

"Our car has been very sensitive to a number of small factors since race one, and we have suffered a lot in the first part of the season as well," the Frenchman explained.

"It's enough that you pick up a bit of damage, let it be on gravel, on the kerbs, you get a different wind direction, and everything is a little bit on the edge in terms of performance.

“Not only do you probably pay a price for lap time, but it also removes the driver's confidence. It's not a new topic, but it's something where probably we have more potential to extract."